Manuel Alegre

Manuel Alegre is a Portuguese poet, novelist, and political figure born in 1936 in Águeda. He is one of the most beloved Portuguese poets of the twentieth century and a significant figure in the history of Portuguese democracy. He opposed the Salazar dictatorship and was imprisoned and exiled, spending years in Algeria, France, and Brazil. He was a candidate for the Portuguese presidency. Alegre has published more than twenty collections of poetry and several novels. His poetry is deeply rooted in the Portuguese lyric tradition — particularly the tradition of the saudade and the canção — while engaging directly with historical and political experience. His most celebrated collections include Praça da Canção (1965), Poema com Bandeiras (1967), and O Canto e as Armas (1967). He received the Prémio Camões in 2017, recognizing a lifetime of poetic achievement and his moral courage in the face of dictatorship. Alegre is a deeply beloved figure in Portugal, a poet who has given voice to his country's longing for freedom and to the experiences of exile and return. His fiction includes the novels O Homem do País Azul (1991) and Jornadas em África (1999). He remains one of Portugal's most read and respected writers.